It could happen anywhere. You could be going grocery shopping, working, or even seeing your favorite artist in concert. Any of these normal, human experiences could be destroyed in a moment; destroyed by gun violence. This is the reality today in America.

Gun violence affects everyone whether or not you were a direct victim of gun violence.

We hear about gun violence so often in the news that it’s hard not to live in fear. In a school setting,  teachers and students hear about situations of school shootings, and they can’t help but wonder what they would do in that situation. Concertgoers listen to the music, but a loud noise could set off alarms. These are thoughts and fears we have to deal with on a daily basis.

Ms. Figueroa, a history teacher at the NYC iSchool, says, “When a drill would be announced, all the students always know what to do automatically. To students right now, it seems to be something they’re just used to.”

This is in reference to lock down drills. Lock down drills usually involve students moving away from the hallway windows so they aren’t visible. Most students are familiar with these, as they happen every year.

Students should only be concerned with thinking about doing their work in school, learning and broadening their surroundings. Never should a student ever be in danger in their own classroom.  

According to The Council on Foreign Relations, out of all the developed countries in the world, the US has the highest gun violence rate.

“Updated Evidence and Policy Developments on Reducing Gun Violence in America” discusses how there are 11,000 murders and 19,000 suicides from guns annually.

Since Sandy Hook, a mass shooting that occured at a Connecticut Elementary School in 2012, there have been more than 1600 mass shootings, according to Vox.

It is clear that guns increase violence. Researchgate says homicides and suicide counts increase due to gun violence. Suicide attempts were more “successful” due to gun violence and domestic arguments are more lethal due to gun violence.

To better understand the importance of gun control laws,  some history is necessary. In 1968 the Gun Control Act was passed. This restricted anyone with a history of mental illness or drug abuse from buying a gun, but was proved to be ineffective.

New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) requires more “involuntary outpatient commitment.” The SAFE act also requires mental health professionals to notify police about patients who threaten to harm themselves or others.

A 2013 Connecticut law prohibits anyone from purchasing a gun within 6 months of “any voluntary hospitalization for mental illness treatment”.

Something all these acts have in common is mental illness. Most people agree that the mentally ill should not be able to get a firearm, but the extent of which varys.

American Bar talks about a public survey. This 2013 public opinion survey found “46% of Americans believed that persons with serious mental illness were ‘far more dangerous than the general population.’” “Newton Public Opinion poll” showed the majority agrees on increasing government funding on mental health screening and treatment.

There is an estimated 3.5 million Americans with mental illness going without treatment.

Business Insider says that people with mental illness account for 3% of violent crime.

According to “Updated Evidence and Policy Developments on Reducing Gun Violence in America,” “If schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression were cured, our society’s problem of violence would diminish only about 4%.”

Additionally, the SAFE Act also has some flaws. Those who are mentally ill and committed to treatment centers involuntarily pose a larger risk of violence towards themselves and others. That being said, these are under certain circumstances, not all times.

This system also misses people at risk who don’t get commited, and could possibly be infringing on people’s rights of due process. These things suggest the SAFE Act might need improvement.

According to Ms.Figueroa, “I think mental illness is something that needs to be explored further; more supports need to be given to people, mental health should not be viewed as a negative thing.”

Regarding mental illness, sophomore Anya Richards said, “It does, if there are ways someone who is mentally ill can obtain a gun, there is something wrong.”

A poll taken after Sandy Hook showed the majority of gun owners and non-gun owners agree to increase funding on screening for mental illness to prevent gun violence.

Although mental illness plays a role in gun violence, this role is very minor. In fact, people with mental illness are more likely to be the victim than the perpetrator.

This is something not a lot of people know, so they point the finger at the mentally ill as a way of keeping their guns. An example of this would be the NRA. The NRA is a major organization who profits from the purchasing of guns.

The NRA doesn’t directly profit from the sales of guns. The bulk of money they get is from the gun industry makes donations to them (as they support gun owners) and advertisement of guns.

This is significant because if the advertisement of these guns were to cease and they received less funding from gun companies, they would lose a lot of money. Some of the funding even comes from their sales, so that shows a direct correlation. According to americanbar.org, Congress has given the gun industry immunity against most lawsuits.

The NRA blames mental illness for gun violence and proposed a database to track mental illness.

This can cause a lot of misinformation among people. This might cause people who don’t know much about gun violence and gun control that mentally ill people are to blame.

The problem isn’t the people, it’s guns. This idea has been supported by a lot of evidence.

The Weapon Instrumentality Hypothesis suggests that the presence of these weapons make their use more likely. If we look at other countries, it is clear how this hypothesis is supported.

Looking at Canada, they have stricter gun control than the US, and lower rates of gun related death, injury and crime than the US.

According to “Health Canada,” “One study examined the link between rates of gun ownership and firearm deaths within Canadian provinces, the US, England/Wales and Australia, concluding that 92% of the variance in death rates was explained by access to firearms in those areas.” Australian states with more gun legislation had lower rates of suicide and homicide by firearms.

From this, we can see that less guns results in less violence. Many teachers and students support this idea, as the fear of school shootings is very real.

According to Ms.LaPlante, an algebra teacher at the NYC iSchool, “It scares me to think about, what would I do in a situation where someone came here?” She also states, “I had the thought that we’re on the fifth floor so they’re probably gonna get to other places before they come up to the fifth floor and that’s an awful thought.”

The effects of gun violence have a very real and human affect. When people hear about these situations, it scares them. They wonder what would happen to them if they were faced with such a situation, which should never be an issue.

A lot of New York City students are sparking change. The NYC Says Enough Organization is a community of students. According to their instagram, they are “NYC students working together to protest gun violence and to urge legislators to pass common sense gun laws.”

An example of a spark of change is the March for Our Lives movement. The March for Our Lives was a huge protest in which students and adults rallied for more gun control laws. This took place all over the country.

When teachers hear about school shootings, it’s very scary to many of them. Ms. Figueroa says, “I’m in charge of protecting students. On top of the fact that my life is at risk and all these other students lives are at risk, I’m the person there to insure the students are safe.”

This shouldn’t be an issue teachers have to deal with. Their job is to teach students, not having to protect their lives.

Suicide attempts are “more successful” due to guns, meaning they actually work. According to Every Town Research, access to guns increases risk of death from suicide by 3 times.

There are different reasons for why more gun control is necessary. One reason for this is the US’ progression since when the Bill of Rights (which includes the 2nd amendment) was created.

So much time has passed since the Constitution was written. The 2nd amendment of the Constitution states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Many people against gun control argue that it is their 2nd amendment right to own a gun. However, the 2nd amendment was ratified in 1791, a drastically different time from today. They didn’t have such high magazine weapons, like an assault rifle. Their use of guns was mainly for defense purposes, and could not do nearly as much damage.

Since the 2nd amendment was written, we have advanced so much. The damage a gun can do now is much more than what it used to be. Looking at that, there is change that needs to be made.

A ban on military grade weapons  wouldn’t get rid of the 2nd amendment, like many believe would be happening. It would just be making it somewhat stricter, preventing mass shootings. The deadliest mass shootings in recent history were all from military grade weapons.

Ms. LaPlante says, “I think that the 2nd amendment was written in a very different time. Where guns could not create the same damage that they do nowadays.”

In states that have “right to carry” laws, anyone who can legally own a gun can also get a concealed carry permit. Concealed Carry Permits can cause issues, which we can see when it was found that concealed carry increased firearm homicides by 9%.

Sophomore Gemma Klinkowstein,a sophomore, says, “I think gun control will help prevent violence all throughout the nation and especially in schools so people can feel a lot safer in their learning environment.”

There are different solutions to how the US might go about gun control. One of these solutions is a ban on automatic weapons.

People being able to access high magazine weapons is unnecessary and dangerous. An assault rifle is a military grade weapon, and should not be accessible to just anybody. When people were able to buy military grade weapons, the number of people killed in gun massacres shot up.

“The number of gun massacres and massacre deaths decreased by 37% and 43% respectively after the 1994 ban on assault weapons went into effect,” which is said by Business Insider.

Ms.LaPlante states, “Correlation between guns and gun violence – I don’t know that the quantity of incidents would go down, but I think the number of deaths from said incidents would be reduced.”

High magazine, military grade weapons make it possible for so many people to be harmed in a single shooting that took place. By reducing access to these kinds of weapons, the damage these weapons cause will be reduced.

Micah Gomez, a Sophomore at the NYC iSchool, says, “People should have guns, but it should be regulated.” This statement further shows how in this kind of solution, guns aren’t being completely banned, just who is able to get them and what kind of guns is being limited.

Another solution could be stricter background checks. These background checks would be looking for things like history of mental illness/hospitalization for a mental issue, drug abuse, criminal records, and more. With stricter background checks, it will be preventing guns from getting into the wrong hands.

Sophomore Adjo Adjegan argues, “I think there are other components that play a role in gun violence, especially in this country. I feel like the more restricted something is, the more ways people are gonna find ways around it.”

This is a common argument of why gun control wouldn’t work. Yet, a crackdown on guns in the blackmarket is a viable solution to this issue.  A correlation between more gun control and less gun violence is visible.

Business Insider says, “One recent study found that states with fewer school shootings tended to have stricter background checks for weapon and ammunition purchases, and also spent more money on education about mental-health care.”

Going through more steps to get a gun is a small price to pay for possibly preventing the loss of lives from shootings. When guns get into the wrong hands, destruction could happen.

The focus should be less on protecting guns and more on protecting human lives. There are real people affected by gun violence everyday. The victims, the victims families and friends. The damage is real and painful.

Another possible solution is ammunition control, which is discussed in a New York Times article. This would be controlling bullet distribution and who is able to get bullets for a gun. Ammunition dealers will be required to keep logs of all purchases.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” This idea is very interesting, as it proposes the bullet itself is doing the damage, not the gun. This idea can be argued however, that the gun is what is making it all possible.

Nonetheless, bullet control is a reasonable and very possible solution to gun violence. In Fact, California is going through bullet control.

Bullet control is an example of a smaller stride we can take. It won’t be so much affecting the guns as the amount these weapons can shoot. It will limit who can obtain them, without taking people’s guns away, an idea that outrages many gun owners.

Still, the effectiveness of bullet control will have to be explored. Yet, it is still a possible solution.

The NRA proposed the “solution” of arming teachers, which outrages many people.

In regards to arming teachers, Sophomore Anya Richards says, “I think that’s very dumb because teachers don’t know how to handle those guns.”

There are many issues with the supposed solution, one of which being that teachers may not be comfortable having a weapon in their classroom. As said earlier in the article, a teachers job is to educate students, not protect their lives.

A gun is a lot of responsibility that a lot of people would not be okay having. Teachers are not trained on how to handle this weapon, and that is completely changing the responsibilities of their profession.

This “solution” would result in more gun violence, and certainly not less.

Public health experts suggest universal background checks, ban on military grade assault weapons, high capacity ammunition weapons and a crackdown on gun trafficking.

Looking at all the evidence, we can’t question that some forms of gun control reduces gun violence. Looking at other countries with stricter gun laws, they have less gun violence.

No, gun control won’t get rid of gun violence completely. But making strides to prevent the large amounts of it happening currently is so important and can prevent innocent people from losing their lives.

There are many different ways we can prevent further gun violence, especially in large amounts. Guns enable the large amounts of gun violence, and this needs to be limited.